1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to extenders which are adjustably attachable to conventional automobile sun visors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A variety of extenders for motor vehicle sun visors have been proposed. As is well known, conventional motor vehicle sun visors usually are not adjustable to the extent necessary to shield a vehicle driver's or passenger's eyes from the sun under all driving conditions. Consequently, when the sun is very close to the horizon or is at an angle with respect to the vehicle such that its sun visor does not block the sun's rays from the driver's eyes, the safety of the driver and all occupants of the vehicle is compromised. Safety considerations suggest that a means of blocking the sun's rays at least from the driver's eyes under such circumstances would be highly desirable. Safety considerations would also suggest that the extender be movable with no significant effort by the driver (or diversion of his attention from his efforts in driving the automobile) to any location necessary to block the sun's rays from the driver's eyes. Furthermore, safety considerations would suggest that the extenders be formed primarily of plastic, rather than metal, to avoid injury to the occupants of the vehicle in the event of an accident.
The state of the art is believed to be represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,617,088, 3,515,427, 4,023,855, 4,058,340, 3,169,552 and 3,695,658. U.S. Pat. No. 3,617,088 discloses a sun visor extender including an integral unit having two opposed panels connected together by a U-shaped section. That device has two "internal" shoulders disposed near the free ends of the two opposed panels for engaging a pair of corresponding "external" shoulders which must be attached along the opposed surfaces of a conventional automobile sun visor. In one embodiment of the invention, only one panel is utilized, and a pair of spring clips attached to the panel are utilized to clip the extender to a conventional sun visor in such a manner that a degree of adjustability of positioning of the extender with respect to the sun visor is achieved. U.S. Pat. No. 3,617,088 suggests that the panels may be composed of metal or plastic. If metal is used, the panels can be very dangerous if the vehicle is involved in an accident, as the sharp edges of metal panels could result in serious injury to occupants of the vehicle. The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,617,088 is impractical because the above mentioned exterior shoulders must be glued to or otherwise attached to the vehicle's sun visor. Furthermore, the "external" shoulders greatly limit the adjustability of the extender to a considerable degree. In the above mentioned embodiment of the device having spring clips, such spring clips greatly limit the degree of adjustability of the extender.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an inexpensive sun visor extender which is inexpensive and easily adjusted by a driver of the vehicle in which the extender is installed.
Another object of the invention is to provide a sun visor extender which is unlikely to cause serious injury to occupants of a vehicle if the vehicle is involved in an accident.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a sun visor extender which has a higher degree of adjustability than any of the sun visor extenders of the known prior art.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a sun visor extender which provides relatively constant engagement pressure with a conventional sun visor, regardless of thickness of a vehicle's sun visor and regardless of temperature of the sun visor extender.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a sun visor extender which has such a degree of adjustability that it is movable with ease to almost any position on a vehicle's built-in sun visor so that the extender can be adjusted to and securely remain at any needed position without requiring the driver of the vehicle to divert any of his attention from driving the vehicle.